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Oct 7, 2015 at 12:01 AMOct 8, 2015 at 6:05 PM

In the case of Superman, the clothes did not make the man. Beginning Saturday, one of the suits worn by actor George Reeves on the 1950s TV series The Adventures of Superman will be on display at the Ohio History Center.

In the case of Superman, the clothes did not make the man.

Beginning Saturday, one of the suits worn by actor George Reeves on the 1950s TV series The Adventures of Superman will be on display at the Ohio History Center.

>>Video: Children go bonkers over Superman suit

The suit, plus other Superman and newly acquired pop-culture memorabilia, are additions to the long-running museum exhibit “1950s: Building the American Dream.”

The TV series, which ran from 1952 to 1958, was wildly popular. But the suit itself, made of a wool blend and emblazoned with the famous “S” logo, hardly seems fitting for “the Man of Steel."

“Costumes produced for TV and movies were made to look good for the camera, but they’re a little more delicate,” said Megan Wood, the center’s director of museum and library services. “It was not made to repel bullets.”

Also, light can damage textiles over time, so the suit (made of wool) will be enclosed in a special case.

“We’ve been joking that light is the Kryptonite of the Superman suit,” Wood said.

Reeves bulked up artificially, stuffing the suit with muslin to create the appearance of bigger muscles. (The stuffing has not survived.)

The suit is on loan from the National Museum of American History, part of the Smithsonian, which acquired it in 1987 from DC Comics. It will remain at the Ohio History Center through Jan. 3.

“We thought it was an important cultural icon,” said Dwight Blocker Bowers, the curator of entertainment history for the national museum. “He was the first real superhero to have a huge effect on American culture.”

Superman was created for Action Comics in 1938 by two Ohioans: Cleveland natives Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

Superman and his ability to help right wrongs in society, Bowers said, “offered an enormous amount of hope to the American public” when he was introduced in the 1930s, during the Depression.

The suit, Wood said, offers another chance for the type of interaction that Ohio History Center officials have seen since opening the 1950s exhibit in 2012. The exhibit — to run at least until summer of 2017 — includes a Lustron home and a 1957 Chevy.

“It’s something that as a parent or grandparent, people have been able to talk to their children and grandchildren about,” Wood said.

“It lets our visitors be an authority on the topic. We wanted people to talk to each other, rather than the museum talking to visitors.”

@kgdispatch

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